Table Of ContentHuman Activities and the Tropical Rainforest
The GeoJournal Library
Volume 44
Managing Editors: Herman van der Wusten, University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Olga Gritsai, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow,
Russia
Former Series Editor:
Wolf Tietze, Helmstedt, Germany
Editorial Board: Paul Claval, France
R. G. Crane, U.S.A.
Yehuda Gradus, Israel
Risto Laulajainen, Sweden
Gerd Lüttig, Germany
Walther Manshard, Germany
Osamu Nishikawa, Japan
Peter Tyson, South Africa
The tit/es published in this series are Iisted at the end of this volume.
Human Activities
and the
Tropical Rainforest
Past, Present and
Possible Future
edited by
BERNARD K. MALONEY
The Palaeoecology Centre,
The Queen's University,
Belfast, Northem Ireland
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-90-481-4952-0 ISBN 978-94-017-1800-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-1800-4
Printed on acid-free paper
Ali Rights Reserved
© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in1998
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface IX
Acknowledgements xi
Contributors XlI
Foreword Professor Sir Ghillean Pranee, Xlll
Direetor of the Royal Botanie
Gardens, Kew.
1. Introduction Dr. Bemard K. Maloney, 1
Palaeoeeology Centre, The Queen's
University, Belfast.
2. Landscape sensitivity in the humid tropics: a
geomorphological appraisal 1 7
Professor Miehael F. Thomas,
Department of Environmental
Seience, University of Stiding,
Stirling, Seotland.
3. Human activity and the tropical rainforest: are the soils
the forgotten component ofthe ecosystem? 49
Dr. Stephen Nortc1iff,
Department of Soil Seienee,
The University of Reading, Reading,
England.
4. The long-term history of human activity and
rainforest development 65
Dr. Bemard K. Maloney,
Palaeoecology Centre, The Queen's
University, Belfast.
vi TABLE OF CONTENTS
5. Indigenous knowledge of the rainforest: perception,
extraction and conservation 87
Professor Roy F. Ellen,
Department of Sociology and Social
Anthropology,
Eliot College, University of Kent at
Canterbury, Canterbury, Kent.
6 . History and destiny of Middle American forests: the
inheritors of the Mayan landscape 1 0 1
Or. Peter A. Furley,
Department of Geography,
The University of Edinburgh,
Edinburgh, Scotland.
7 . Sodal, economie and political aspects of forest
clearance and land-use planning in Indonesia 133
Dr. Alastair I. Fraser,
UK-Indonesia Tropical Forest
Management Project, Manggala
Wanabakti Building, Jalan Gatot
Subroto, Jakarta 10270, Indonesia.
8. Diversity destroyed? Tbe monoculture of
Eucalyptus 151
Dr. Christopher J. Barrow,
Centre for Land Development,
University College of Swansea,
Swansea.
TABLE OF CONTENTS vü
9. Modelling climatic impacts of future rainforest
destruction 169
Dr. Kenneth McGuffie,
Centre for Climatic Impacts,
McQuarie University, NSW 2109,
Australia.
Professor Ann Henderson-Sellers,
Royal Melbourne Institute of
Technology, Melbourne, Victoria
3001, Australia.
Dr.Huqiang Zhang,
Bureau of Meteorology Research
Centre, P.O. Box 1289K, Melbourne,
VIC 3001, Australia.
10. Conclusion 195
Dr. Bernard K. Maloney,
Palaeoecology Centre, The Queen's
University, Belfast.
PREFACE
This book arises out of a one day conference organised by the Development Studies
Committee at The Queen's University, Belfast, in February 1993 jointly with the
Geographical Association (Belfast Branch). The editor was a committee member of both
organisations, and the Chairperson of the Development Studies Conference Organising
Committee. Over 300 people attended the conference sessions and Professor Sir
Ghillean Prance delivered the keynote lecture to a large audience.
So, the conference was a success, and discussion among the speakers, and with
Dr. J. McAdam, the Chairperson of the Development Studies Committee, led to
agreement that we should (Maloney should!) approach other possible contributors with a
view to publishing a multi-disciplinary, but thematic, account of human activities the
past, present and future development of the tropical rainforest. This might seem to he
an easy task, but, because many academics are so very overworked, it took over a year to
find suitable people who were prepared to contribute to the book, then a publisher had to
be sought. Following refereeing of the proposal, Kluwer Academic kindly agreed to
publish this book as one of their Geo-Journal series, and the editor wishes to thank
them for doing so, and, in particular, Ms Petra van Steenbergen for her enthusiastic co
operation through the time period this volume has taken to produce.
Special care was taken to make sure th at there was cover of the physical
background of the rainforest: its geomorphology and soils and how these impact upon
natural and anthropogenic change, the long term and more recent history of human
activity in the forest, and an assessment of reafforestation, both socio-economically, and
in terms of reduced biodiversity. The topics interrelate the past and present evolution of
the rainforest, but the past and present influence the future, and the possible future of the
rainforest is considered in more detail using a modelling approach. Some of these
themes have, inevitably, been covered, or partly covered, elsewhere before while others
have not. What has been assembied is a collection of essays which is unique in its
range, and the authors feel that a braad brush approach, with same more specitic
examples, is necessary to put tbe situation in perspective. Some people might argue
that a book with a title sucb as tbe one given to tbis portends a 'doomsday' book. The
editor would disagree: it is simply a statement of wh at has occurred in the distant past,
and what was very important in terms of largely non-destructive use of forested areas, of
the technological developments that took place, which inevitably brought about forest
clearance during prehistory, what happened in colonial times, the perspective of some
remaining tribal societies, wbere we are at at present, and what the possible future is for
the remaining rainforest, all set against the backdrop of the fragility of tropical physical
environments.
There is no intention to preach to countries that still have rainforests about
how they should conserve them. This is not a book about rainforest politics. Indeed
it would be arrogant of us in the so-called First World to write telling the people of the
so-caIled Third World what they should do with the forest, especially as eco-tourism
from the rich countries in the future may, if not carefully controlled, pose as much a
problem to tbe maintenance of those areas of forest whicb have been conserved as
loggers and miners have to those which have not been preserved. We do not expect so-
IX
x PREFACE
called Third World countries to tell us how we should con serve our environment and are
in no moral position to teU them what they should do, especiaUy as we have made such
a bad job of managing the environment in so many areas. We would be better advised
to say 'look what a mess we have made, if we can help you to avoid similar disasters,
and you want that help, ask us and we will advise as best we can, but we have no right
to teU you what to do.' This book is concemed with wh at was, is, and wh at could beo
It does not aim to present a First World opinion of what ought to beo It may be
claimed, 'but the rainforest belongs to the world'. That might be so, but the land which
is occupies and the minerals and ores beneath that land does not, therefore a more
pragmatic approach to conserving what remains of the rainforest is advisable.
Because of the wide-ranging nature of the contributions, it is hoped that this
book will appeal across the range of inter-disciplinary divides: to physical geographers,
archaeologists, foresters, and agronomists to name but a few. Indeed it is also hoped
that its content may appeal to the more general reader, if only to dip into.
Bernard Maloney Belfast, 1997
